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I am going to buy a big amp soon im thinking about this a Marshall Plexi reissue, a boss eq pedal and a SD-1 and a powerbrake so I can get the most gain without cracking walls and eardrums!!!will I be close to some classic vh crucnh?

Plexi's are cool, but VERY limiting. One sound, and they're tough to play with. Go try one and you'll see what I mean. As far as the brownsound goes that's more up to your fingers then any gear you're going to use. Ed sounds like Ed through anything he plays, so the only common denominator is Ed.

I've said before, and I'll say it over and over, go try a bunch of amps to see which one suits you the best, that's the test, not what others are using, (not that you shouldn't try them)!

The thread title says a lot; 'buying the brown sound'. People have trying to buy that sound for a couple decades now; the fact that they've failed says even more. You can't really buy a sound-people with a LOT of money behind them have been unable to pull it off.

Your sound comes more from how you play than anything else. While you may be able to come CLOSE in some cases to the sound, there's still the issue of tone to contend with. And tone comes from the player, not the gear.

There are guys who have played through my stuff (Strat, 5150, Digitech f/x unit) and have gotten quite 'authentic' sounds for country, blues, rock, metal, extreme metal, and even jazz. And my setup isn't a very versatile one! (well, at least for ME it isn't [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]) But of course, none of them had "my" sound, whatever that is exactly. It's in the player, not the gear.

Think about it-if it was possible to buy a sound, then you could go to the store, tell them you want an "Eddie Van Halen" or an "Eric Johnson" and they would steer you to a product and that would be it. To date, this hasn't yet happened, and I don't predict that it will any time soon.

I know you're a younger player, so I'm thinking back to earlier stages in the game for me. I went through MANY phases of sounds; I wanted to sound like Eddie, then I wanted as heavy a sound as I could get, I wanted warmth, I wanted cold, then I wanted stereo out the yin-yang, etc etc. After MANY years of playing, and many of writing, I have just recently been figuring out what sound(s) I REALLY like to have for myself. Hell, I wouldn't touch a guitar with single coils for the first 8 years or so; now it's 90% (at least) of what I use. To make matters worse, not only have my musical tastes changed over this time, but I completely rework my entire method of playing every couple of years (which is a TOUGH thing to do, but it does wonders to expand your musical palette, even if you give up several years worth of chops in the process).

I have said it before, and I'll say it again: when you're a new player, the musical world out there seems ENDLESS. You're still young enough to be completely blown away by something out of nowhere, so much that you decide to pursue THAT particular style or sound for a while. When that time comes, you will be finding yourself in the search for new or more versatile gear. That costs $$, lots of it. I truly feel that limiting yourself now is a bad thing to do, especially since there are SO MANY products out there that can do SO MANY things. These allow you a little more leeway to grow and change. Even better, they aren't very expensive compared to the specialized stuff.

I am not going to TELL you what to buy or not buy. But I will go along with Homeunit's opinion that a Plexi/power brake setup is limited at best. And personally I can't justify using a distortion pedal as anything but a novelty; to me, they just sound cheap. Of course, there are many players out there using them all the time and doing GREAT things with them, but they are not for me. I am not a big fan of the Boogie stuff, ESPECIALLY considering the price point, but you should try it all.

With things like the POD, the J-Station, a SansAmp, and the Behringer V-AMP out there at very reasonable prices right now, I HIGHLY recommend them, even if you only use them to write or to practice, coz they give you a LOAD of sounds you otherwise could never get from a regular amp (or even 12 amps). New or unusual sounds can be VERY inspiring; hell, I've written entire pieces of music based on a particular sound, or effect, or whatever.

So, (for the hundredth time I'm sure [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]) I urge you to seek out some VERSATILE gear for now. When you discover what 'your sound' is/will be, then you will be better informed as to how to get that sound and what gear you need to do so. And if you lock yourself into the rig you mentioned in your post, I STILL think you owe it to yourself to look into the modelling stuff--they really are amazing little beasts.

I know tone comes from the player, but I really think that EVH is wanting to know if he'll be close to the 'gear' Eddie was using in the earlier days. I've wondered myself which Marshall would come closest to that of which Eddie used to use. Does anyone know anything about the Marshall 1959SLP reissue? I've only found them on the internet, like Musicians Friend. As far as the 'amp' itself goes, would that be similar to Eddie's amp? If not, what would?

Thats right the 1959slp is the one i saw at guitar center and was going to give it a test run. i know its all in your fingers but i really love that tone of his amp, same with the mesa boogie i know players can make it sound different but its still the same damn amp and its going to have that amps original sound. I heard eddie used an old plexi and a variac also an eq, is this correct?

Ed had one old plexi that was his favorite, but when he toured he had at least 5 or 6 different ones he took with him.
The variac he used lowered the voltage, thereby raising the current, to give him the gain that is available by other means today.

I think EVH's early tone had alot to do with the echo and ambiance Ted Templeton used in the studio, the live recording situation and being able to crank the volume up to 10. A lot of the early bootlegs i've heard have shitty tone. The guitar sounded nothing like it does on the album. Like Dimebag Darrell said, you can try all you want to make your stuff sound like a studio tone but it's not possible because you don't have access to enough EQ and mastering equipment.

i agree with brett, ed s tone on alot of the early bootlegs i have is killer i.e. golden west ballroom 76. lets remember too that choice of guitar materials contributes to tone too. .....i think the brown so8nd is just a distortion that stays pleasing even when you turn it up all the way. im learning this now, on my amp theres a sweet spot around 3 but after that it starts getting too bright and shrill [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] i wish i could take that sweet spot and turn it up. at this point if i could have any amp it d be a mesa dual rectifier or soldano hot rod 50. and instead of trying to get stuff to use with a plexi for eds sound why not justb get one made to order at www.torresengineering.com?

The never ending search for Ed's brown sound continues. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] You guys remember that Van Halen Unleashed MTV thing? Where it shows Ed going through his little Fender practice amp....it's brown as fuck too. It's all in the fingers boys, and after 20+ years of playing I'm still not even close. My goal was always to get that tone Edward gets on the Unchained video, but I don't see it ever happening. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] Something about that "chug" in that particular video...you guys know what I'm talking about. I guess a tone like Edward's is kind of like trying to get Excalibur, and there isn't but one guy who can pull it out of the stone. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

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